"Cloverfield"

I want to say right off the bat that everyone should go see "Cloverfield" simply for the novelty of it. Directed by Matt Reeves and produced by super geek producer J.J. Abrams, "Cloverfield" is a giant monster movie told through the point-of-view of regular, everyday people using a personal, hand-held camera.

You're not likely to see another monster movie quite like it or as good as it anytime soon. It is an experience not to be missed, especially on the big screen. However, don't be surprised if you walk out of the theater asking yourself if the movie has a motivation problem.

Because I think it does.

The flick presents itself as "found footage," retrieved after an incident the Department of Defense has labeled "Cloverfield" (what that designation means is never divulged) in what used to be Central Park. The first bit of footage we see is that of two people, a guy (Rob, as played by Michael Stahl-David) and a girl (Beth, as played by Odette Yustman) in an apartment, lovers planning a grand day together.

The footage then jumps to a month later, where we find Rob's friends throwing him a going-away party as he is leaving New York City for a new job in Japan. At this point, Rob and Beth are no longer together. When Beth shows up at the party with a new male friend, this sets Rob off into a tizzy that leads to him going to the roof of his apartment building to talk with his brother Jason (Mike Vogel) about how he really feels about Beth.

We get to see all of this because Rob's friends wanted to create a "goodbye" video for him that he can watch while in Japan. The camera operator, Rob's friend Hud (T.J. Miller) decides to follow Rob around when Rob's personal problems become more interesting than soliciting testimonials from Rob's friends.

Hud follows Rob and Jason to the roof, where they're all witness to the start of the monster attack off in the distance. Quite quickly the mayhem and chaos arrives at Rob's building, and the movie kicks into overdrive.

The police attempt to evacuate the area. As Rob and his friends cross the Brooklyn Bridge Rob gets a cell phone call from Beth, telling him that she's hurt and trapped in her apartment. Rob right then and there decides to go back into the city to Beth's apartment and rescuse her.

And then the monster attacks the bridge. A bunch of people die (including a main character), massive damage is done. Hud still has the camera and keeps filming. This is where the motivation problem arises. Is it plausible that Hud would really keep filming? What is his motivation to keep the camera rolling? Hud says that he wants to document everything because "people are going to want to know how it all really went down."

But is that really enough reason to keep shooting? Especially after the situation continues to get worse and worse as the movie goes on?

And while the first 20 or so minutes of the flick are interesting in their own way, the whole section is basically irrelevant to the main thrust of the narrative. We don't learn anything about the characters before the attack that we couldn't have learned on the fly if Hud had been a neutral TV cameraman or someone who for whatever reason latched onto Rob and his friends as they went back into the city. So what exactly is the point of this part of the movie besides padding out the running time?

Even with those two issues, once the monster action starts the movie stays incredibly watchable right up to the end. I just wish the presence of this "found footage" was slightly more plausible. I mean, yeah, it's a monster movie, but that's no excuse not to ground the movie's fantasy in a better reality.